Thursday, March 12, 2009

Pith in the Wind picked up the question of Megan Barry's vote against a just and equitable structure for fee increases in the Mayor's water bill, and CM Barry told them that she made a promise to the Mayor's Office to vote for their bill.

She tells them she believed that promise to be a mistake in hindsight. No kidding.

The assessments on CM Barry in the PiTW Post are running negative, a fact that brings this former Barry campaign supporter/donor no joy.

Barry was one of 24 council members to vote in favor of a stormwater bill that unfairly burdens the little guy. In other words, she went down looking.

And then a bevy of comments in reply; negatives weighing in mightily among them:

How in the world do Nashville voters manage to elect these mediocrities?

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I appreciate Ms. Barry's keeping her word. But what about keeping her word to the people who elected her? Did she not promise them first? I hope she will learn from this and will hold my judgment in reserve until I see how she votes on the LED sign bill.

Keeping your word is important but not at the cost of screwing your constiuents.

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She pledged her vote for the mayors bill when there was no amendment offered. When the amendment was offered she could have abstained and still kept her word or voted for the amendment and when it failed voted with the Mayor and still kept her word.

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Mrs. Barry was told that the stormwater plan was flawed, and she responded by promising to vote for the flawed bill. That's not a mistake -- it's a dereliction of duty. Anybody with a lick of common sense would've asked "what are the flaws?" and "what improvements are needed?" rather than pledging a "yes" vote to Riebling.

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She, in essence, said, "Mr. Riebling, I will vote for your flawed bill." The correct action on her part would have been to say, "Mr. Riebling, I cannot vote for this bill as it is currently written" and then offered improvements. She might not have gotten all the improvements that she asked for, but she didn't even make the attempt. We deserve better than that.